Some Army posts to end individual memorials

[CommunityEditor]

Soldiers from Fort Lewis, Wash., and Fort Drum, N.Y., who are killed in combat will be honored during monthly group memorials instead of individual services beginning in June.

“As much as we would like to think otherwise, I am afraid that with the number of soldiers we now have in harm’s way, our losses will preclude us from continuing to do individual memorial ceremonies,” Troy wrote in his e-mail. “I see this as a way of sharing the heavy burdens our spouses and rear detachments bear, while giving our fallen warriors the respect they deserve. It will also give the families of the fallen the opportunity to bond with one another, as they see others who share their grief.”

The group memorials will be “a way for the greater Fort Lewis community to come together once a month to honor our fallen warriors,” Piek said.

Officials also are “doing this to help take some of the planning off of the shoulders of the rear detachment members” who also “have a significant other mission of continuing to train soldiers and taking care of soldiers’ families who are here on post,” he said.

Troy discussed having monthly memorial ceremonies with commanders overseas, rear detachment commanders and family readiness group leaders, Piek said.

“The best way for us to look at this is the memorial service we do here at Fort Lewis is truly the public’s only opportunity to come together and remember our fallen soldiers,” Piek said.


Full article: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/0...orial_070531w/

Nice way to redirect attention away from casualties, exactly what the gummint wants to do.

All this is is another way that the current Administration tries to blind the people, AND SOLDIERS, of the US to what is really going on in Iraq. The soldiers who are there more and more call it for what it is, a giant FUBAR with the FUBAR in Chief keeping them there as little more than human targets. Every military member and their families should stand up and demand that 'group' memorials be stopped and that every soldier who gives their life in the name of their country be honored. What is next, dumping them in mass graves in Iraq so we don't even have to show our flag draped honored deads arrivals back home?

See that is just it. I was medevac'd out of country during OIF 3 and when I hit ground in Germany no one was there with little flags or a cake. I was escorted into a hanger after touching down at 0235 and the only thing waiting for us there was staile cookies and coffee from the USO and a 2 Hr waite for our medical transports to arrive. Funny this is I was based in Germany not an hour away from there. Everyone talks about cassualties as if they were one. The true casualtie of this conflict are all the soldiers that have been forgoten in every major military hospital. Cut off your legs, isolate yourself from every one else, and then be told by some docter that you'll be "O.K." and you will know true and utter lose.

To my knowledge, none of the US 37,000 Korean War KIA's were mass buried via one ceremony. Same for the US 58,000 KIA in Vietnam. That's at least 95,000 INDIVIDUAL CEREMONIES honoring the dead.

Can you just imagine the outrage of families attending services of those being buried in Arlington National Cemetary by the Honor Guard cramming multiple burials into one ceremony? How undifinified. The only positive element of this asinine proposal would be the less frequent calloused jingle muttered by the "Guard": "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, lets bury this bastard and get back on the bus".

John McCarthy
http://johnmccarthy90066.tripod.com
vpocv@hotmail.com

Unfortunately, life continues on. I would like to attend all individual memorials to show my respect to the families who have given the ultimate sacrifice, but job AND family do not allow this. Now, I will be able to attend one ceremony for ALL the brave men and women who gave their lives.

[TJMAC77SP]

Folks............we are talking of memorial services here not funerals or burials. No where were mass burials mentioned. This is two Army posts, home to two units which are taking heavy casualties in Iraq and/or Afghanistan.

No where does it say this decision was ordered by the ‘gummint’. This is not an appropriate thread to make into a ‘bash Bush’ debate.

Read carefully, think, then write thoughtfully……………………………..

Originally Posted by TJMAC77SP

Read carefully, think, then write thoughtfully……………………………..

Amen to that. Each Soldier who dies is honored several ways. 1: The Soldier will be honored at memorial ceremonies in the combat zone, either alone or with comrades who died with him/her. 2: That Soldier will have (or be part of) a memorial ceremony at his/her home station. 3: Finally, the Soldier will be given an actual funeral and burial in their hometown (or wherever they are to buried) with full military honors. That's three potential times & places in which the fallen Soldier will be honored.

John, as TJMAC77SP stated, nobody said anything about consolidating funerals or burials, and Arlington National Cemetery was never mentioned. Where did you come up with that?

And with regard to the "calloused jingle muttered by the 'Guard'," where did you hear that? I have never heard such a thing at a funeral or burial, military or civilian. Weird...

Still standing,
Brian

This is just political bullshit at its finest. This is the way we treat our fallen comrades?

These men and women have signed their life away to fight for the freedoms which the rest of the nation enjoys, meanwhile they spend their time in third world countries, enjoying nearly nothing, enduring stresses in which the rest of the country can hardly fathom.

Each and every service member throughout all of the branches of the service DESERVES and have EARNED an individual memorial. Simply grouping them together, under the pretense of “the number of soldiers we now have in harm’s way, our losses will preclude us from continuing to do individual memorial ceremonies” is crap, make the fucking time, spend the damn money. We spend billions of dollars, time and effort on other nations to feed, train and employ, yet we cannot find a way to honor our troops that Washington put in these situations in the first place?

SGT Steven Paul, US Army Veteran

[Measure Man]

First off, this is not "another way the ADMINISTRATION tries to blind people" or a way for the "gummit" to divert attention...this is talking about a local base commander, grouping them at one base.

Memorial services at the unit are not the military funerals. Soldiers are still entitled to military funerals.

I wasn't around during Vietnam or Korea, but with the number of casualties we took during those wars, I seriously doubt they had individual memorial services at the unit for each soldier...our full time job would be running memorial services back home.

I don't see it as disrespectful to hold a monthly service for several members. I've seen group memorials for several people who were all killed in one incident...and it worked out pretty well. Each person still has individual eulogies and remembrances.

THEY STILL GET INDIVIDUAL FUNERALS, either back at their home of record, or wherever they choose.

Memorial services have been something "extra" that units do "out of hide" in order to have closure for the unit...most of the ones I've been to, the family doesn't even make it, except maybe the spouse because she lives local. There comes a time when a unit, especially if they are taking heavy casuaties, simply can't afford to do a memorial service or two every week. What if they lose 20 in a month? Should they do nothing but memorial services the whole month?